


All The World's a Stage

by sablesheep



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Collegestuck, F/F, Shakespeare, Theatre, Titus Andronicus - Freeform, Transgendered Character, dormstuck, romeo and juliet - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-08-20
Packaged: 2017-12-20 22:26:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/892618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sablesheep/pseuds/sablesheep
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vriska's roommate convinces her to audition for a play she's directing. It goes better than expected because she gets cast. It goes worse than expected because she's expected to kiss that weird blind girl who lives downstairs and it's actually... kind of nice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. each have their exits and entrances

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cynicow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cynicow/gifts).



> Based on the Shakespeare troupe I run and participate in at my college. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER: None of these characters are based on anyone living or dead nor are any of these situations accurate to experiences I have had in real life. The similarities to my life start and end with the setting. 
> 
> Furthermore, I make a lot of jokes about disability and a few ableist comments in the body of this work that in no way reflect my personal beliefs or feelings. I've got a pretty nasty chronic pain condition myself, so it's not something I take lightly; if anyone finds anything offensive I am, 1) tremendously sorry and 2) will change it upon request.
> 
> Also I'm totally a Shakespeare nerd, I'm sorry about that too.

It all starts with her stupid roommate. Ever since move in day, Rose has been an almost literal thorn in her side. Mostly because no matter what the fuck happens she seemed to take everything in stride, brushing off the worst of life's slings and arrows like nothing more than detritus from one of the many cherry blossom trees outside of their dorm's window. It's their second year living together, to the surprise of everyone who's met either of them; they were assigned to a room together their freshman year and then, well, they'd wanted a nice room and figured why the hell not. 

And due to the fact that Rose is terrifying, they'd gotten it. Their room is huge and overlooks the main campus and is covered in books, D&D manuals, yarn and Munchkin cards that went missing--

It's the dorm room of a pair of English and History majors who are two of the campus's biggest geeks-- in the best way. Vriska's spent a lot of nights cuddled up next to Rose in her over-pillowed bed, sharing a bottle of wine while she cries about how much she wants to date Kanaya and Vriska bemoans the fact that she hasn't gotten laid in like _forever_ \--

It works out pretty well. Mostly because her mom keeps them supplied with wine and so does Rose's mom and her stepmother is always baking things to mail to her and Rose's uncle likes to send them terrible porn to review so it's really okay most of the time.

Except for the fact that, well, Rose likes to socialize with Vriska's family. Mostly due to the fact she's made it her life goal to sleep with Kanaya, Rose's stepsister at design college in Philly, and she keeps _texting her mom_. Who the hell texts their roommate’s mom?

Rose argues that, as an aspiring author, she would be remiss not to utilize the contact she's able to have with one of New York's biggest names in fantasy publishing. Vriska thinks this is a load of bullshit because fuckall her mom would publish Rose's book even without Rose living with her. Also its bullshit because Vriska knows that her mom is really just being a nagging, worrying, meddling parent, not looking for unsolicited manuscripts. 

They're sitting in silence, both of them wrapped up in their own pursuits. Rose has a textbook spread out in her lap and a bundle of unspun wool in a basket at her feet. Vriska has the faintest notion that she's spinning it into yarn, but not much more. She herself is rather busy online with her mother-- which sounds lame but it's not because they're in the middle of a Guild Wars campaign that's totally _kick ass_... except for the fact that her mom won't stop IM’ing her about the stupidest shit--

-AdriftGadling began pestering ArachnidsGrip-  
AG: So have you decided yet?  
AG: decided what  
AG: Your roommate told me, don't play dumb.  
AG:I raised you better than that.  
AG: If you're going to lie do it well )::::  
AG: ::::( im going to sign off if you dont stop  
AG: What the hell is wrong with your punctuation  
AG: What the fuck am I paying 56k a year for if you can't even instant message properly?  
AG: MOM stop okay  
AD: Okay okay okay. Fine. I'll leave it.

She leaves it. For eight seconds. Vriska barely has time to close the window and unpause the game before the 'ping' goes off.

-AdriftGadling began pestering ArachnidsGrip-  
AG: You'd be really good. You should audition.  
AG: MOM  
AG: Fine, fine, fine. I know. Your mom is yelling at me that I'm going to traumatize you and keep you away from theater forever.  
AG: shes not my mother!!!!!!!!  
AG: ::::( I thought you liked Rosa  
AG: I do she's just not my mom can we not do this again please mom

Vriska yanks out her headphones. Rose is sitting on her bed like there's nothing amiss, her hair a silvery blonde in the diffuse light streaming in through their window seat from the safety lamps. She looks like she's in an absolutely different universe from everyone else, as if she's one of the women to first inhabit their college back in the 1890s instead of a student of the 21st century.

She doesn't care. When Rose fails to respond to continued glaring, Vriska huffs and yanks open her top drawer. It's full of random bullshit and she usually wouldn't give a fuck but she's trying to find her fucking set of dice that are missing a pair--

After some searching she manages to find them. It's a set of eight that are missing two and without further preamble she ends up missing four when she throws one at Rose's head-- misses-- and then throws another that lands on the pages of her textbook.

"Yes, Vriska?" Rose asks, glancing up at her with a sweet, friendly smile. "How may I help you, my dearest roommate?"

"Fuck off Lalonde," Vriska mutters, rolling her eyes. "Stop calling my mom, she's being a pain in the ass."

"Your mother is an impressive woman and I can't help responding to her inquiries about your health."

"Stop telling her when I do things! I said I _might_ be _persuaded_ to audition for one of your dumb shows--"

"Vriska, you're a talented actress and I can't help it that after your performance on our college's main stage I'd like to have you in my production."

"Rose you're directing _Titus Andronicus_ why the fuck do you think I'd be so good in it--"

"Vriska, don't insult either of us by pretending we're idiots; your mother raised you better than that."

" _STOP TALKING TO MY MOM_."

* * * 

Eventually, Rose, her mother, her stepmother and Kanaya win out. Text messages, e-mails, IMs, letters, post-it notes-- they all add up after a while. Eventually Vriska throws open their dorm room door after class one day (after she's been pestered all of sixteen million times by Feferi, Rose's assistant director) and shouts:

"I'LL AUDITION FOR YOUR FUCKING PLAY. JUST CALL OFF YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS."

And Rose just glances up from her desk, where she's working on _god knows what_ and smiles, darkly. 

"Good. I printed off the audition pieces and put them on your bed. One monologue and one dialogue from each show, please."

Vriska grumbles to herself but she feels a quiver of excitement as she looks the pieces over and realizes that she _misses_ acting. 

"Darling girl," Her mom singsongs when she calls with the news, and Vriska hears their dogs barking in the background and her stepmother making quiet inquiries into the nature of the call. "Darling _girl_ , I'm so proud of you."

Vriska curls up a little more tightly in Rose's armchair, nuzzling into her knees. She can't help but blush a little at her mother's enthusiasm and feel more than a little sad because fuck it she does miss her and their stupid pets and her stepmom's greenhouse--

"I haven't even auditioned yet, Mom, _god_ ," Vriska grumbles, attempting to sound like she doesn't care at all. "I just want you to stop fucking calling me about it, okay?"

She laughs and Vriska hears her tell her wife, 'she's going for it!' and then there's a whispered: 'break a leg, sweetheart' and a grumble of 'that's my kid! I get to talk to her!' and then things get kind of ridiculous.

The gist of it is that her mom's going to send her champagne, her stepmom doesn't approve of that and they both love her very much. But her mom loves her more.

(And her real mom is still sending her booze). 

* * *

The auditions are the next weekend. They're only three weeks into school so Vriska manages to find time between her History of Pirates class and her Victorian Memoirs class to memorize her monologue and the dialogue she's interested in performing. 

She can't practice in her room because, well, Rose insists it's "unprofessional" for her to see one of her potential actresses in advance. So she's forced to practice in their basement common room, instead of one of the two on the first floor that are big and cozy. 

Vriska reserves the room for an hour each night. Rose tells her this is overkill since people don't really _prepare_ for these so much as they read the piece a few times before they show up, but Vriska ignores her. 

She used to act, a lot. A _lot_ a lot, which sounds like a stupid sentence but Rose is the English major, not her. She went to a performing arts high school for crying out loud and she was in every play they ever did. She'd performed on her college's main stage last year-- with the official drama department-- and, well, she knows she can do this because she's Vriska fucking _Serket_ but all the same she's kind of... well... nervous. 

The night before auditions begin, Vriska's fully intending on running through her scenes only twice more before going to bed. She pushes open the door to the common room without any sort of worry that she won't get her space because she signed up for it and people around here know that you do not try to steal space from Vriska Serket.

But when she steps into the room and flops down onto the couch, there's someone sitting at the long table in the back of the room. She's got books spread out around her and her laptop humming in front of her, headphones in her ears. She doesn't react at all to Vriska's appearance; she's too deep into whatever's playing across her headphones to hear her and she's wearing some really fucking stupid looking glasses with opaque red lenses that almost entirely obscure the shape of her eyes.

"Excuse me?" Vriska snarls at her, eyes narrowed behind her own glasses, but ones that are decidedly _less_ stupid with actual clear lenses like a _normal human being_. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She doesn't glance up from her computer screen. She sits there listening intently then typing frantically in turns. It's bizarre to watch. The blue light coming off of the computer screen makes her already pale skin look a disgusting corpse gray and turns her brilliant red hair a weird murky color. 

Vriska's sure she's seen her around and is also sure that there's something she should know about her but all that she can think right now is, 'the fuck is wrong with this bitch?' which she knows isn't cool since they're all feminists and sisters in defeating the patriarchy and all that bullshit about being united as Women's College Students but fuck that. This is her room.

"Oi. You." She takes a few menacing steps forward and slaps her hands on the desk. The action sends reverberations through the tabletop and that is what finally snaps her out of her reverie. She stares up at Vriska through her glasses, giving her gaze an eerie otherworldly quality. "Can't you read?"

She slips off her headphones and frowns, eyebrows furrowing into two little riverbeds in her forehead. She keeps staring in Vriska's general direction without actually making eye contact. Vriska shifts from foot to foot, anxiously because the fuck do you do in a situation like this?

"I can only read in rather specific situations, I'm afraid." She says, grinning with a wicked abandon that's utterly off-putting. She slips off her glasses and the eyes behind are-- well-- 

"Fuck what happened to your face?" Vriska gasps out, dropping her purse. "Shit. I mean. Fuck. I mean. I'm sorry--"

She's blind. That's really fucking obvious now that she's looking at her. Her eyes are fuzzy, dark blue rises entirely obscured by deep hazel green splotches and weird silvery white pupils. She blinks a few times and it's bizarre to watch. 

"Sorry." Vriska repeats, awkwardly, picking up her bag and the papers that had spilled out. "Sorry. I mean. Fuck--"

A few pens have scattered beneath the table. Vriska crawls along on her knees in an attempt to grab them and in an effort to regain her composure. She comes face to face with a large white dog with sharp fangs and disgusting dog breath and eyes as perfectly pointed as an isosceles triangle.

Vriska, to her utter shame, yelps and throws herself aside. She ends up slamming the back of her head on the tabletop above her. Her vision is utterly obscured by her hair as it falls into her face and she's blinded by a curtain of honey blonde hair. Her glasses fall off, worsening the situation, and she tries her best to figure out how to get out from this situation. 

The dog barks in her ear and she throws herself forward. Her cheek makes sharp contact with someone's kneecap and she makes a panicked noise because _fuck_ she's wearing a skirt and then-- and then--

Shit. _Shit_.

She has her face buried between her legs. Not intentionally, of course, but-- well-- her face is still _there_ , pressed against the warm skin of her thighs and she freezes automatically because _fucccccccck_ is this bad--

"Well. It's a pleasure to meet you too," Her new paramour murmurs, a little dryly. "But if you could get your face out of my genitals I would really appreciate it."

Vriska nods. That doesn't make the situation any better because she's really just rubbing her face up against her more. It's awkward. Really super fucking awkward and she's more than a little embarrassed because fuck all she must look like a moron. 

Eventually, Vriska manages to disentangle herself and skitter over the carpet backwards so quickly that she knows she'll have rug burn on her knees. She stands, quickly, brushing the dirt and dog hair off of her knees. 

"I'm-- I'm-- fuck." Vriska's never been one to be at a loss for words but, well, what do you say to the blind girl you just insulted, assaulted and made an ass out of yourself in front of.

"Lovely name. French Canadian, is it?" She says, dryly, folding her fingers beneath her chin. Vriska forces herself to meet her eyes. 

"...You're blind." Is all that Vriska's able to say. Fuuuuuuuuck you can't say shit like that. "I mean. Uh. You can't see."

She nods, slowly, looking Vriska over like she's a moron, which she sort of is. "Yeah. Yeah I am."

"Well. Fuck. I just. I wasn't expecting that."

"Sorry for defying your societal norms." She says with a snort, rubbing her hair out of her eyes and slipping her glasses back on. "And for your information, I can still _see_."

"...So your eyes are just fucked up?" Vriska asks, arching her eyebrows. She shifts her bag against her hip and fumbles for her scripts in an attempt to look a little less like an idiot when it fully hits her just what in the world she's said. 

"No. I can see colors and vague shapes and slight movement." She shrugs yawning a little. "Can I help you with something?"

"Yeah." Okay. Yeah. Yeah, she can do this. Okay. "Yeah, you _can_. I've got this room reserved until nine."

She frowns and lifts one of her headphones to her ear. It only takes her a few keystrokes before she sighs and pronounces: "It's six to nine. Do you really want to make me leave for six minutes?"

"...Ugh fine." Vriska rolls her eyes and huffs. "Just... read next time."

"I'm _blind_." She grumbles, rolling her eyes. "You just molested a blind girl and nearly stepped on her seeing eye dog so, uh, just saying you don't really have any ground to stand on as far as filing official complaints with the registrar go."

"...The fuck are you doing, preparing for the LSATS?"

"Yes." She says, without hesitation. "I'm going to be the youngest woman on the supreme court so I might as well get started."

Vriska would like to look at her and say "that's total bullshit" but, well, she can't. She can't because as much as she wants to hit her smug smile off of her face with her laptop she knows that she's _serious_ and she believes what she's saying.

So she says: "I'll send you a fucking congratulatory memo. Just... check the fucking sign or something."

"Well maybe _next time_ you should write it in braille." She counters, with a smirk. "Equality is important."

"Fuck off." Vriska mutters, rolling her eyes and slamming the door shut behind her as hard as she can. She hears the dog bark a few times behind the closed door and she represses the urge to kick it, hard. 

The door, that is. Not the dog. She's not that bad of a human. No matter what the blind ginger chick might be implying. Still, when she gets back upstairs, she flops onto Rose's bed and _groans_.

"Rose I just molested a blind girl."

"Really?" Rose is sitting at her desk. Not her desk like her desk, but Vriska's desk-- the one by the window. "That's nice."

She's clearly not listening.

"I think I need to go die now."

"Yes, two sugars please." Rose replies, distantly, and holds out her coffee cup. Vriska glares at her but she's already gone back to typing furiously. She rolls off her bed and takes the offered coffee cup and glances over her roommate's shoulder. 

She's working on the latest chapter of _Complacency of the Learned_ and Vriska knows better than to interrupt her. Even if she is successful... well... 

There's only so many times you want to go to the health center to get treated for minor burns after your roommate throws a cup of tea at your face and actually makes contact.

So she makes Rose a cup of coffee. It's the instant shit they have in the tea pantry so it's not remarkably good or anything but-- well-- when she passes it back to Rose, she still thanks her with such gratification that Vriska can only hug her and mutter an awkward: 'turn off your fucking light I'm going to sleep'. 

She lies in bed in her boxers and a worn out t-shirt, staring at the ceiling, for a good hour before sleep finally takes her. What the hell is wrong with that girl? Honestly. Other than the obvious, y'know-- blind shit. What went and stuck a stick up her ass? Ugh. Pre-law students are the _worst_. 

And what's wrong with her _hair_ god. It's like... is there even a name for that color? Fire engine red? No, ugh it's more _orange_ than red. And her skin is so pale that she looks like an extra vampire on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And that _dog_ needs a bath--

Ugh. She's tired and she's horny and her roommate is writing shitty wizard fan fiction. But then again, what the fuck is new.

Seriously that hair though, ugh. What even color is that? Vriska huffs and flops over in bed so hard the bedsprings twang. Yeah she's going to have nightmares about a blind ginger now. Fucking wonderful.

* * *

The next day is Audition Day with a capital A and a capital D because fuck yeah capital letters or whatever the fuck. Vriska shows up at exactly 8 seconds after 8 for her audition. The front doors of the dorm where they're being held are heavy and they give her a bit of trouble since her arm's being a dipshit again, but with enough finagling she manages to get inside. Stupid doors. Who the fuck completely remodels a dorm and then makes the doors weigh like fifty fucking pounds--

She takes the stairs do the basement lounge two at a time. There's a long line of windows looking in and she can see a pair of girls she barely knows auditioning, clearly reading a scene from Romeo and Juliet-- the play that Nepeta and her weird, sweaty, quiet childhood friend, Equius, are directing. 

Not that there's anything wrong with Equius. Equius is super kickass. Like 888% kickass and Vriska's willing to punch anyone in the face who says different. Like seriously-- she's got eight metal plates in her arm, she can break anyone's face in and claim Americans with Disabilities Act coverage bitches.

Vriska used to know Equius pretty well, back when Equius was still Erica and was a sweaty, quiet, anxious girl instead of a sweaty, quiet, anxious dude. Her-- his-- dad was Vriska's mom's surgeon after _The Accident_ and was, fifteen years later, the doctor who put her own arm back together. Erica-- Equius, fuck, couldn't he have picked an easier to remember name-- had kept her company when she was in the hospital and no one else could be there; at 17 he'd seemed to have checked out of everything and Vriska was reasonably sure the only reason Equius had been able to keep her company was 'cause she was there on-- 

Well. She doesn't like to think about that. All that she knows is that Equius was the only one there when the doctor came in with the news that Aradia had died and they didn't really talk much after that. Not really much of a way to recover a friendship after you accidentally kill a dude's best friend.

Still, when he spies her lurking outside of the windows, he gives her a gruff nod. Vriska nods back. Yeah, Equius is kind of a weirdo but, fuckall. Everyone here's kind of really fucking weird.

In a good way, y'know? Vriska tries to quell the nervous soliloquy going on in her head by reciting her memorized monologue over and over again while she fills out her audition forms.

Name, Vriska Marie Serket-- no, ugh, not her middle name that's fucking stupid, show preference, Titus whatever, role size, who gives a fuck-- preferred gender?

She scowls. That's kind of an insensitive question to be asking, isn't it? She starts to write an angry comment in the margin and then belatedly realizes she's just being a fuckup because she goes to a _women's college_ and they're probably asking about the gender of character she'd like to play in the show.

Vriska circles 'woman' without needing to think too hard. And then, in the subsequent box asking "Comfort level with physical contact?" 'unsure'. 

The rest of the form is just banal stuff like her schedule and whatever the hell else they need to know. She fills it out with a mindless twitch in her leg, chewing on her lower lip almost until it bleeds. She can't pay attention to anything going on around her; when the little frosh who's running tech for Rose's show steps outside to take her audition form, she almost bites her head off. "Sorry--" She mutters, helping her to pick up the stack of papers that went flying when the girl was startled. "I didn't mean to be such a bitch--" "It's okay," She says, shrugging and looking more than a little bashful. "Bitches get shit done. Just channel Beyonce and you'll be okay."

Vriska stares at her. She stares back. Fuck what is wrong with the girls at this school? It has to be something in the water. She never drinks water so that's probably why she's not so fucking insane--

"They're ready for you now, if you'd, uh, like to audition?" She freshman says, slowly, raising her eyebrows. Vriska takes a deep breath and follows her into the room.

She feels like her blood has been sucked out by a vampire who looks surprisingly like James Marsters, mixed with a few ounces of vodka and a couple of redbulls and then reinserted into her system _then_ she was repeatedly defibrillated. She hasn't done this in _ages_. 

Acted with her friends, that is. She's performed since... The Incident (not to be confused with the Accident, which was when her mom got her arm and half of her face blown off and, when hospitalized for it, met the woman she'd end up eloping with). The Incident was when-- well-- uh--

Ugh whatever no one likes talking about old stupid shit like that. Vriska takes a deep breath and wipes the sweat off the back of her neck. God she feels like she has to pee, even though she just went like five times before she came-- ugh--

And then, before she can find her ID card and buzz into the residential areas of the dorm... the little tech girl is calling her in to read. 

It's completely different standing in front of her friends and being asked to perform than standing in front of the theater director and performing. For one thing, she hates the theater director and doesn't give a fuck about what he thinks-- which is probably why he cast her-- but she does kind of want Rose to think she's good. And Feferi. And Nepeta. And Equius. And those other chicks who are doing tech stuff backstage-- she wants them to be impressed by her, too. But not like "oh wow she's amazing I love her" impressed but like-- "wow she did a good job A-" impressed.

"Hey guys," She says, her voice cracking and flying up to an incredibly high pitch. Vriska coughs in an attempt to brush it off as something caught in her throat. "Uh-- what's up?"

Rose gives her a smirk. "The ceiling. Probably the second floor. Perhaps a few clouds?"

Vriska rolls her eyes. Nepeta and Feferi laugh and even Equius cracks a smile.

"What are you going to be performing for us tonight?" Rose asks in her calm, professional 'I am a successful woman' voice that Vriska recognizes from all the phone calls she's overheard her making to her editor. "I'm all abuzz to see your efforts."

Fuck. Moment of truth. Vriska swallows, the bulge in her throat growing to almost impossible proportions. "I-- I'm going to be reading a monologue. And a dialogue."

"Yes, Vriska, we know that--"

"A monologue from _Titus_ and, uh, a dialogue from _Romeo and Juliet_. I, um, don't need a script or anything--" Vriska reaches up to pull her hair off of her face. Like always, she misjudges the strength of her reconstructed arm and snaps the hair band. 

It's enough to shatter her concentration and she stands there, staring blankly at her scarred over hand until Equius clears his throat and shuffles across the room. He wordlessly hands her another hairband. He's still got impressively long brown hair so it's not weird at all but-- well--

"You'll do a good job." He says, certainly, patting her on the shoulder. "Don't be nervous."

Vriska pulls her hair back once more, this time careful to use her healthy, non-AI supported arm to wrap the band. Rose and Company are waiting, patiently.

She takes a deep breath and smiles at them. Then, she performs. Like always, she can barely remember what happened. She never remembers what goes on when it's just her and the stage and the lights on her face. 

The only time she remembers performing is when she's sharing the stage. When she's staring someone else in the eyes and forcing them to do her bidding with nothing but her face and body and words someone else wrote. 

She finishes her monologue within a minute or so and gives them all an expectant look. They're all scrawling notes and it takes a good thirty seconds before Rose smiles at her and says, sincerely, "Thank you, Vriska."

She reads the R+J dialogue with Nepeta, who giggles her way through it before bouncing back over to Equius. She drops into his lap and whispers something that makes him laugh. It's the first time Vriska's seen him smile in, well... ever.

God, the two of them would make a really fucking adorable couple. In like a... weird 'have they been married for 60 years and there's no romance anymore' way not like a 'haha you can totally tell they're fucking' way. 

Vriska's just slipping out of the door when the next auditioner appears. Is that a word? She doesn't know. English Major plus Comp Sci Minor basically equals not knowing jack shit without the internet. The next applicant is no one other than...

Than...

The blind ginger chick who wears lacy turquoise underwear and has that bigass dog. Fuck. She stuck her head up her skirt but she didn't even ask her name.

"Sup." She says, awkwardly, trying to look like she's not about to _melt_ from embarrassment. "Good to see you again. I mean-- it's good to-- y'know-- look at each other-- no I mean--"

Rose, in the background, snickers. 

"I mean... fuck." Vriska's face is burning. She drops her head forward in an attempt to hide her face, realizes her hair is tied back then realizes she's _blind_ and can't exactly tell she looks like a moron. 

She just raises an eyebrow and coughs, delicately. "I don't normally make a habit of accepting sexual advances from women I just met--"

"Don't play dumb, we met two nights ago." Vriska huffs and crosses her arms over her abdomen. "Ugh. What's wrong with you? Just because you're _blind_ doesn't mean you can be rude."

"...Are you the girl who stepped on my dog?" She asks, slowly, pulling off her red glasses and smiling a little. Out from behind her computer screen she doesn't look anywhere near as _dead_ , her skin a much warmer shade of peach and her hair more of a russet than ruby. She looks almost... _nice_ , weirdly enough. Not like 'oh she'd probably bake me cookies if my mom kicked it suddenly' nice but like 'if I had more wine I'd totally tap that' nice. 

"Yeah, yeah I'm the girl who stepped on your dog." And got up close and personal with your _cat_ too... but she doesn't say that out loud. Even she's got a filter.

Sometimes.

"Vriska, seriously?" Rose sounds even more condescending than usual, her voice as heavy with haughtiness as it is with laughter. "You stepped on Terezi's dog?"

"Look she was in the common room when I had it booked and I didn't see the stupid thing-- who the fuck has a dog at college!?"

"Vriska, she's _blind_." Feferi stage-whispers, horrified. "You shouldn't be so mean!"

"Ugh whatever. That's no excuse." Vriska rolls her eyes. "She took the common room when I had it booked!"

"I'm blind." Terezi says, bluntly. "I can't read the signs."

"Get the fucking dog to read the fucking sign then!" Vriska growls before she can think better of it. 

"Oh god I totally forgot that Dragon can do that. Dragon, would you mind reading with me for my audition?" Terezi glances down at the dog, somehow impeccably meeting his eyes. At the sound of his name he sits at attention and woofs. "Wow I feel so stupid, of course my seeing eye dog can _read_."

Okay. She has a point. A good point. And Vriska flushes the second she realizes it, from her ears to the tip of her nose. 

"I-- Well--" She says, quite coherently. "I-- I can read with you if you need someone." 

Everyone falls silent. Even the dog. Rose turns to stare at her. 

"What. I'm not _that much_ of a bitch." Vriska mutters, shoving her hands into her pockets and hunching over. "I don't have anything else to do."

Terezi smiles a little, a weird lopsided one that crinkles up her nose and only one side of her mouth. "That would be highly appreciated. Even from a dumb blonde."

There's something about that statement that makes Vriska's eye twitch, and it's not just the insult. But she can't figure it out so, fuck all, who cares. 

"Yeah. Yeah, I bet it would." Vriska mutters. Terezi, walking past, slaps her in the ankle with her cane. _Hard_.

Bitch. 

She reads one of the Romeo and Juliet monologues as Vriska sits there, glowering through her glasses. Dumb blonde? _Dumb blonde_? If anyone's dumb and blonde in here it's-- it's-- no, fuck, it's not Rose she's in Mensa or some shit like that. Okay. So maybe she is _technically_ the least intelligent blonde woman in the room but... fuck that.

Her bad eye twitches a few times and she growls. She yanks her glasses off and wipes them clean on the hem of her one 'dressier' shirt, a blue number she stole from her mom's closet last time she was home. Terezi goes into a weird blurry monovision for a second and, in a moment of hostile curiosity, Vriska closes her good eye and glances her over.

Without the benefit of a corrective lens, her damaged eye can barely make out anything more than a reddish blob (her blazer) and a darker, coppery shade (her hair) and some pinkish bits. 

Okay. Well. Maybe she probably wouldn't have recognized her. That's... that's sort of legit. Fine. Ugh. She won't hate her forever. But she still doesn't have to _like_ her.

She opens her good eye, the one that's still got almost perfect vision, and immediately feels sick to her stomach. Fuck all. Three years now and she's still not used to it. Vriska puts her glasses back on as quickly as she can, attempting alleviate her dizziness. It works, but she still feels queasy when Rose turns to her and says:

"You still up for reading with her?"

Vriska glares. She's on her feet and taking the script from Rose's hand before Terezi can change her mind either. She has, horrifically enough, chosen the dialogue piece where the two brothers get together to exchange a series of jokes about the fact that they just chopped off a woman's hands and hacked her tongue out after they _brutally raped her_.The puns alone are disgusting, but the subject matter is worse and it's Shakespearean villainy at its finest. 

She takes the stage across from Terezi, shaking her shoulders out. Terezi stares at her with blank eyes and blinks a few times. Vriska gives her a face that means 'start already!' and she doesn't respond. 

That is, of course, when she remembers, the girl is _blind_. So she makes a theatrical sigh-- one that's meant to be staged, not like... melodramatic-- 

She rests her elbow on Terezi's shoulder and casts a condescending glance at the ground between the two of them where an imaginary maimed woman is lying. She rests her chin on Terezi's shoulder, arches an eyebrows and does her best to look maliciously pleased. Then, she says, as quietly as she can:

"Your line."

Terezi immediately springs into action. Her body goes absolutely alive with a thrumming energy and she lets out a _terrifying_ cackle, showing all of her teeth. Vriska takes her lead and peels back her upper lip in a gross facsimile of a smile. 

It's taking everything she has to stay focused on the words on the paper in front of her instead of-- well-- the fact that her perfume smells like vanilla and musk and her skin is as soft as seal fur under her hand. She's warm and bony and Vriska's so fucked because all she can suddenly think about is pressing her lips to the hollow of her throat and feeling her heart beat. 

"So, now go tell, an if thy tongue can speak," Terezi says, slowly, measuring each word like the most precious of spices. "Who 'twas that cut thy tongue and ravish'd thee."

She's calm and collected and more than a little wicked, her voice calm but her face full of sheer delight. Vriska lets out a delighted noise. Her urge is to leap forward and examine their imaginary victim or to somehow convey the fact that she'd like to do something absolutely evil but-- well--

Her scene partner is a blind chick. There's no way to cue her if she can't touch her. So instead of doing any of that, she breaks every cardinal rule of acting, and breaks her personal space without permission. 

She drapes herself around Terezi's back and chuckles, darkly, in the back of her throat. "Write down thy mind, betray thy meaning so, an if thy stumps will let thee play the scribe."

Vriska says this as _sincerely_ as she can, meaning that-- well-- she fakes sincerity with a syrupy sweetness as cavity inducing as a Starbucks Frappuccino. She shifts forward, trailing her fingers down Terezi's shoulder and tugging as innocently as she can on the sleeve of her cardigan. Terezi, thankfully, takes her cue and steps forward. When Vriska crouches down and starts to laugh, she looms down beside her. 

The transition is seamless and, as they continue to trade verbal barbs about an imaginary maimed woman, they continue to carry a synchronicity that Vriska hasn't felt with another actor at any time other than the last day of rehearsals. They haven't discussed a thing, she's blind, Vriska doesn't have feeling in most of her right arm-- and they _pull it off_.

When they finish, everyone's staring. Which is normally a good thing but now just feels weird. 

"Uh. Can I go?" Vriska asks, slowly, like her assorted group of friends is totally stupid. Which they sort of fucking _are_.

"That was... incredibly terrifying." Feferi says, her voice high pitched. "I'm-- I'm really scared. But. Um. That was sort of--"

Rose snorts. "If you were playing brothers, I think we might be doing Oedipus Rex instead of Titus Andronicus."

"I ship it." Nepeta says, slowly, her eyes wide and ridiculously excited looking. "I ship it a lot."

" _Nepeta_ ," Equius warns, narrowing his eyes. "You're not writing fanfiction about Shakesperean rapists."

Terezi snorts beside her. Vriska turns and gives her a wicked smile and holds her hand up for a high five. There's an awkward delay before she realizes what she's done and then, with a huff, reaches out and raises Terezi's hand to her own. She understands the gesture, thankfully, and gives her a solemn high five. 

"Yeah, we're done here." Rose says with a slight smile. "Terezi was our last audition so, um--"

"Heading back home?" Vriska asks, raising her eyebrows. Rose shakes her head, no. "Oh. Um. Okay. I guess I'll go--"

"Take Terezi with you." Rose says, with a smile. "And try not to rape and pillage any small Roman families along the way."

* * *

Vriska doesn't want to take Terezi with her. She's in the middle of post-audition meltdown and she wants to call her mom and freak out, immediately. She wants to pour herself a strong Irish coffee (decaf), huddle up in a nest of her and Rose's blankets and watch a shitload of Doctor Who. She does not want to babysit a blind girl and her puppy.

Vriska pulls her hair down and shakes it out as they step out into the September air. They'd taken the elevator back upstairs and, while the stupid dog seems to be pretty good at his job, Vriska still feels on edge from the weight of responsibility. Terezi makes a face as Vriska's hair brushes across her face. 

"You smell like tangerines." She mutters, absently. "And it kind of burns my nose."

"The fuck?" Vriska glares at her. She's wearing jasmine perfume, definitely not anything citrusy. And the last time she ate an orange was fuck knows when.

"Are you wearing blue?" Terezi asks, arching her eyebrows. 

Vriska stops mid stride. The dog woofs, softly, and Terezi stops as well. "How the hell did you know that?"

"Synesthetic."

"You're blind and synesthetic?" Vriska asks, slowly, snorting. "Wow your life is really fucking weird. Remind me not to have kids with you."

Terezi lets out a mock noise of utter surprise. "But darling-- I was going to tell you-- I'm late. We're having... _twins_."

"Oh fuck no we're totally giving those kids to my stepmother to raise I don't have time for that shit." Vriska and Terezi take the concrete path across main campus to the dorm. Usually Vriska would cut beneath the long line of oak trees and stumble across the grass but-- well-- blind girl.

She laughs, loudly, the sound like a bowstring twanging as an arrow flies off of it. She laughs so hard, in fact, that she stumbles over a crack in the concrete. Vriska's quick to grab her by the elbow and-- of fucking course-- instead of keeping her from face planning... she only manages to break her fall.

"Fuckkkkkk," Vriska groans, hissing through her teeth. "Fuck, fuck, fuck--" She's landed on one of her bad joints and the pain rattles into her teeth. 

Terezi gets up, slowly, using her cane as balance. "I'm so sorry, Vriska--"

"S'fine." Vriska mutters, getting up slowly, given that her tailbone feels like it's been kicked by an angry space robot. "Gotta protect our fake kids."

She laughs again, but this time far more quietly. "I think, in a legal sense, you can only be sued for damage to the children if it's intentional. Or if you're the father. I don't think you're the father."

"...Wait are you actually pregnant? Because I, uh, sort of thought that was just a lame gay joke--"

"Oh. No, no I'm not pregnant. God no." She shakes her hair back behind her ears. In the moonlight she looks even prettier and Vriska feels jealousy begin to seethe in her stomach because fuck her for being pretty. "My mother would _disembowel_ me and then probably sue my ex for everything he has. Which is mostly some shitty cosplays and a lot of porn so I don't think it would be worth the effort."

Vriska snorts. Something in her brain twinges a little at the word 'he' and she strangles the urge to ask if that's like a unidirectional thing or if she's good to go because, well, uh, for a blind girl she's _hot_. Not that there's anything wrong with being blind or anything like that but, well, her eyes are kind of fucking creepy and--

"Who were you dating?" She asks, praying it's not someone she knows. 

"Oh some guy at the other school," she says, obliquely, making an odd hand gesture that's probably intended to indicate their brother college a mile away. 

"Huh."

"Yeah." She says, with a gut-wrenching sigh. "I seem to have a thing for blondes. It's a weakness."

She says this as she gives Vriska a slow once over and a devilish smirk. Vriska feels her cheeks glow because-- well-- um-- is she _hitting on her_?

And, well-- 

Before Vriska can think of a witty retort, they're walking up the steps to the front door of their dorm. There's an awkward silence as she walks down the hallway to Terezi's dorm room; Vriska's not at all surprised to see that she's the one living in the biggest single room on the hall, mostly because-- well-- blind girl must need more room, right? And the dog. She says an awkward goodbye to her after she's sure Terezi has unlocked her door and she and Dragon are both successfully inside.

She makes it halfway upstairs before it hits her what she just said. Or, well, what she's been implying-- 

Vriska takes the stairs down to the first floor two at a time and bangs on Terezi's door, hard. She keeps pounding until it opens and the dog barks, repeatedly. 

She cracks the door open and Vriska realizes that she's actually got a bolt installed. Which makes sense because, well, blind girl can't see who her guests are-- 

"How the _fuck_ do you know I'm blonde?" She growls, eyes narrowed. "I didn't tell you that!" 

She gives Vriska blank stare. Not that she can give any other kind of stare, really. Vriska stares back. Their staring contest is only broken by dragon, the albino wonder dog, sticking his head through the gap in the door and excitedly licking Vriska's hands. She makes a disgusted noise and jumps back, wiping her palms on her blouse.

"I know you're blonde because I _asked_." Terezi says, slowly, raising her eyebrows. Vriska stares at her, uncomprehending. 

"You sounded hot. So I asked what you looked like." She explains, slowly. "Also if I decided to report you for assaulting my dog and I probably needed to know what you looked like."

"...You think I'm hot?" Vriska asks, slowly. Oh god. Oh _god_ the weird blind girl with the demonic red hair and the dead complexion thinks she's _hot_.

"Have a good night, Vriska," She says, cheerfully. "It was really nice acting with you. I hope we end up in the same show!"

And then she slams the door. Bitch. Ugh. You can't say something like that and then just _slam the fucking door_. You have to let a girl think of a witty comeback or something. Ugh. Fucking terrible she just got _bested by a blind girl_.

By the time she stomps upstairs, she wants to punch her and she's really horny because fuck knows the last time someone told her she was hot. 

* * *

The callback list comes out later that night. Vriska reads it and lets out a half-suppressed noise of sheer excitement. Rose, who's playing some wizard game on her laptop, glances up and smiles. 

"You did really good. You and Terezi... you make a good team." Rose tells her when she scrambles onto her bed and hugs her. 

Once again, Vriska falls asleep that night unable to stop thinking about the blind ginger and her stupid dog. Except this time, instead of hating her... she's wondering what it might be like to have sex with someone incapable of seeing her. It sounds just a little... well... 

Hot. 

Ugh fuck this she's got another audition tomorrow morning. 

But at least the hot blind chick seems interested in her. So. That’s. Something. Right?

…Right?


	2. and one woman, in her time, plays many parts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vriska and Terezi spend some quality time together, then finish up their auditions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this was delayed; things have been sort of hectic for me lately with being home for a few weeks off before classes and then a couple of health issues that I'm working through (nothing serious, but still sucky). Hopefully this will make up for it?

Vriska wakes up early enough the next morning that she can make it to brunch. She blinks, blearily, at the tendrils of hazy sunlight that have writhed between the slats of their shutters, painting her duvet in shades of the sea at sunset. When she glances down at her phone, the numbers are half blurred. She sighs and rolls over, onto her bad arm which fucking _hurts_ , and slips her glasses on. Once more the world comes into 20/20 instead of 20/20 and awkward mostly blind. 

She kicks off her duvet and rolls out of bed, pulling on the first t-shirt and pair of jeans she finds on the floor. It's her stupid Sherlock shirt that she usually wears to physical therapy but whatever, it's comfy. She stuffs her feet into her combat boots, leaving the laces trailing behind her until they snag around their rug and then haphazardly ties them around her ankles. 

Callbacks aren't for another four hours and the anxiety is already beginning to cripple her, sending her stomach into spasms that feel like her intestines are teaching themselves how to tie sailor's knots and her bad eye is _burning_. 

She swallows her pain and anxiety meds dry, nearly choking-- like usually-- but fuck it, if she has to be medicated she's going to be a badass about it. Her ID card is sitting on top of a pile of D&D manuals and she stuffs it into her pocket without a second thought. 

Normally she and Rose would straggle out of bed at the same time, grumbling about their hangovers and bitching about whatever homework they have to tackle and then stumble to the last five minutes of brunch to sip at their coffee and eat like eight fucking million doughnuts. 

But, this morning, Rose is curled up in a little nest of blankets on her bed, looking like a cat that fell into a vat of bleach and was horribly disfigured because her makeup is all over her fucking face and it's _adorable_ but still sort of freaky looking. There isn't any way Vriska's going to pull her out of her bed. Mostly because she'd realllllllly like to get cast this afternoon.

Rose's MacBook is in her lap still. Vriska rolls her eyes as she pulls on her coat. Ugh, Rose. Stupid girl, Vriska thinks rolling her eyes. She steps over the piles of yarn and roving that surround Rose's bed and slides the laptop out of her lap. She sets it on her roommate’s desk still open, knowing far too well what might happen if she accidentally lost all of last night's work. 

Except, of fucking _course_ when she looks at the screen there's a Skype window open and she can see the top of her stepsister's head on the other side of the screen.

" _Kanaya_!" She hisses feeling herself blush unwillingly. Ugh. Oh god. She doesn't want to think about this. Nope. Nope, not going there, brain. Except of fucking course her thoughts immediately jump to her roommate and her stepsister going at it in their dorm room and then--

Ughhh this sucks why can't her weird albino roommate date some other weird albino on campus? Why does she have to have a massive fucking lady boner for her _stepsister_. Seriously, Vriska needs to find her a more suitable paramour but-- well--

They're so fucking cute. Ugh. Vriska scrapes her hair off of her face and throws it into a sloppy braid, struggling to free it from beneath the collar of her jacket. Well, she supposes that there's worst sisters in law than Rose Lalonde. And at least she knows that Rose really likes her--

It's too fucking early for this shit. She huffs and closes the door to their dorm as quietly as she can, loathe to disturb anyone. She takes the steps that have the stained glass windows in the stairwell, pausing to admire the way that their campus's English building looks through bright jewel shades.

When she turns the corner, she comes face to face with her worst nightmare. Except not fucking really, she's already lived through that shit. Doesn't get much worse than accidentally murdering one of your best friends--

Oh. Now she's sad. And pissed off, hungover, sleepy, stressed out, anxious _and_ has a pressing urge to pee. Ugh-fucking whatever. 

Either way, there's an albino German Shepard wagging his tail and letting out a soft whine that Vriska assumes is meant to be 'hello do I know you friend let me love you no I cannot love you I am doing job' and that job is to keep the blind chick from getting run over by a spaceship or some shit.

How the fucking hell has she not realized that there was a blind girl living on the first floor of her dorm? Seriously she feels like a dumbfuck. There's even a sign that says 'caution: visually impaired resident' and 'service dog in use'. She just thought those were ironic or some weird shit like that. Ugh, she's even got the biggest room in the dorm. Lucky bitch.

The last thing she feels like doing is talking to her. Even saying hello is going to bring back vivid memories of last night's really inappropriate for children rated dream she had about her. The details are sort of hazy but they _totally_ had sex.

Or something equally as awkward to face in the harsh light of morning? She's not 108% sure on that one. But, knowing her, it was probably sex.

Nevertheless, the last thing she feels inclined to do at this moment is be social with the girl. And her pretty hair. And her _gorgeous_ , albeit terrifying, service dog.

The dog, however, has different plans, and when Vriska attempts to creep past them because fuck all, she's _blind_ , he barks in quick succession. 

"...Hello?" Terezi asks, blearily, turning to look around her-- like that's going to help. "Who's there?"

Ugghhhhhhhh. Ugh, ugh, ugh. She can't in good conscience pretend she's not there _to a blind girl_. That's seriously terrible karmic shit.

"It's me," She mumbles, her voice like it's crawling out from beneath a mountain of sandpaper. "Hi."

"..." She takes a deep breath through her nose and then, to Vriska's surprise, she cracks a tiny, involuntary smile. "Oh. Good morning, Vriska."

"Sup." She says, immediately feeling like a huggggge fucking tool. Wow. That's. That's _embarrassing_. "I mean. Good morning. Um. Hi. Um--"

Yeah all she can imagine is the foggy feeling of dream Terezi's skin against her own. Vriska dreamt that she was ever so slightly warmer and as they engaged in the act of coitus on the top of the piano in the Great Hall overlooking the Courtyard Fountain. 

While a crowd of people watched--

"...Are you going to breakfast?" Terezi asks, slowly, her eyebrows flitting up her face. Against her rosy skin her eyebrows look like fire on snow. It's really fucking weird but also kind of... striking. 

Yeah, she's _hot_.

"Vriska? Breakfast?" Terezi repeats, slowly, frowning this time. "Vriska are you still there? I can hear you breathing--"

"Breakfast, yeah." Vriska mutters, huffing a little and slouching. "You too?"

She shifts, awkwardly, from foot to foot. Her coat is hanging off of her arm. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

"..." Groaaaaaaaan. "You wanna eat?"

"Yes, that would be why I am going to the dining hall." She replies with the best hint of acid in her voice, but not a _nasty_ acid, more of a lemonade with just not _quite_ enough sugar. "I mean. Just maybe. I don't know what you do there, pillage? Ransack? Light everything on fire?"

Vriska grins, despite herself. Terezi can't see this, which is great. "Usually I just graffiti the tabletops with comments about the quality of the food."

"Really? I never noticed that." Terezi mutters, huffing. She pulls her jacket on and slips it over her shoulders. The autumnal flame of her hair glows against the muted army green of the wool and Vriska admires it despite herself. Even Kanaya would like that one. "I must not have been looking very hard."

"Yeah, well, you're _blind_." Vriska mutters, rolling her eyes. She starts off down the hall towards the front door of their dorm. Dragon barks and starts forward. Terezi follows the pull of his leash and soon they're stepping outside into the chilled September air. 

Her hair flits about her head like it's a robin, graceful but still sort of spaztic. The scent of her perfume is caught up in the breeze and it's greenwood and apples and wow Vriska wants to crawl into her arms and sniff the hell out of her. But, no, that would be weird and--

Ugh she's got the biggest lady boner for the obnoxious blind chick from downstairs. Fuck this, fuck fuck fuck. She's made a habit of only sleeping with normal people. And by that she doesn't mean like non-disabled because that would totally be a dick move and that would sent her to hell for being a total bitch but normal like...

Like...

She doesn't even know what makes her seem so weird. The vocal patterns? The teasing? The fact that she still hasn't asked 'what's wrong with your eye' or 'where'd you get those scars by your right temple?'. Which makes sense, since she's _blind_ but it's so unnerving. She doesn't react to anything Vriska does, unless she reaches out and touches her and even then she flows as seamlessly as silk sheets off of a mattress. 

Her face is as dynamic as the ocean and Vriska'd love to sit around and watch her all day, watch the minutiae of her facial tics and the terrifying gleam of her teeth when she smiles--

Mmm but nope. Nope. Nope. Not going to date the blind girl from downstairs. Even if she seems kind of fucking awesome. She's not. She's going to hate her in an entirely professional manner. 

But that doesn't seem right either so she swallows all the things she wants to say, the snarky comments about 'wow it sucks that you can't see how much your hair resembles a maple tree' and then maybe get sniped back and-- well--

She doesn't say any of that. She remains quiet. The walk to the dining hall, as short as it is, takes painfully long. 

Terezi makes several attempts to speak to her, commenting first on the fact that she thinks Vriska's wearing blue because Vriska sounds like blue, that the weather smells like ice water and then asks about classes. Vriska makes monosyllabic replies to each statement which only serves to make Terezi talk even more anxiously to fill the void.

She wants to reply to all of this, of course. She wants to ask what the fuck it means to _sound_ like blue or taste like ice because that sounds sweet and she sort of wants to know what vaginas taste like in Terezi's blind world. That, however, does not seem like a good question to be asking to someone you don't want to crawl into bed with.

Vriska can feel the tension building, like a rope that's been stretched way too far off of the dock and is threatening to pull the sailboat under. 

"Look, I'm just going to be blunt with you--" Terezi stops just outside of the doors of the dining hall, eyebrows rising behind her red-tinted glasses. "If I've somehow offended you, I'd prefer you tell me now instead of us spending an awkward half hour trying to make small talk over terrible coffee."

"Oh-- no-- I mean--- no-- You haven't-- it's just--"

Vriska stares at her, suddenly becoming aware that by not talking she might, well, accidentally make her not like her anymore. And she doesn't want that. She totally doesn't want that. She wants to be her friend not, like, you know. Cockblock her. No. Wait. That's what she wants to do she wants to cockblock her but not friendblock her. That's what Facebook is for, right? 

"Vriska, really-- I'm not interested in pursuing a relationship with someone who doesn't feel the same way." She states, as bold as a highlighter on white paper. "I don't have many friends, Serket. I choose them wisely and-- well-- I would like for you to become one of them."

Fuck. She wants to be this girl's friend in the _worst_ way now. How does she say this without sounding like a weirdo? Or super fucking lame? How does she say, 'I'm really aroused by imagining what it might feel like to have your lips on my throat but I'd prefer to have you as a friend instead'? 

You know what? Ugh. Who cares. She's done stupider shit than say 'I just had a wet dream about us having sex on a piano in front of an audience'. 

"I had a weird dream last night and you were in it." She says in a rush, digging her fingers into Dragon's fur and staring down in to his wide, red eyes. "And I'm nervous about this afternoon and just--"

Terezi pulls her glasses down to the tip of her nose and gives Vriska a considering glance before a smug smile spreads across her face. The fact that she can't see Vriska's cheekbones glowing NARS orgasm pink doesn't make it any less embarrassing. "Did we have sex?"

" _What!?_ " Yes. Of course they had sex. In her dream. Not that they're not going to in real life. Um. Not that they're going to? Oh fuck. "Fuck you!" 

Great, Vriska, really fucking great.

"Oh we _so_ did." Terezi cackles and the sound is both the most awful and most spine melting noise she's ever had assault her eardrums. Vriska can't tell if she wants to choke her until her blind eyes go dull with oxygen deprivation or if she wants to drag her into the never-used men's room and fuck her senseless. "Who was on top? It was me wasn't it, I am _always_ on top."

Fuck. She totally was. Vriska wants to kick her in the shin but it feels sort of shitty to assault a blind girl. She does it anyways. Terezi still doesn't stop laughing but Dragon growls at her, low and angry. 

"Awww, don't be embarrassed." Terezi says, finally controlling herself long enough to straighten up-- with the aid of her cane. "It happens to everyone, I'm awfully charismatic."

"Fuck you, I never said it was about sex. Maybe you murdered me. Maybe you blew up half my house in a maniacal revenge scheme and then maybe I threw acid in your face."

No, that was the dream she had the first night they'd met-- what the fuck had that been about anyways? Ugh whatever.

"That still sounds pretty kinky if you ask me," Terezi says, conversationally, feeling around the slate wall for the handicap door plate. She slaps it, hard, and all Vriska can think about is how it would feel to have that same hand coming down on her ass. Hot as fuck, she's sure.

Vriska shuffles into the dining hall behind her, handing the check in worker her ID card. Terezi produces her card and, for the first time, looks nervous and uncertain. Vriska give her a pointed look like 'the fuck is wrong with you' before she processes that Terezi _can't see where to hand her card_.

"Useless," Vriska mutters, huffing and rolling her eyes as she steals the card from Terezi's hand and passes it to their classmate who swipes it-- giving Vriska a look that's full of disgust and horror. 

"What's wrong with you?" She snarls at the girl, wondering how bad it would be if she punched her in the tits. "Just take the damn card when she holds it out like that, _god_."

Ugh. The girl gives her an affronted glower and Vriska snarls back, wishing her face was still as badly scarred and burnt as the day of the _Incident_ because then she'd totally win this. Instead she yanks Terezi's ID out of her outstretched hand and places it back into Terezi's. 

"You get that a lot?" She grumbles, jamming her hands into her back pockets. Terezi walks alongside her without saying a word. Vriska repeats her question with a huff. "Oi, blind chick--"

"Hmm?" Terezi makes a noise that's barely of acknowledgement. "What? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"Ugh, fuck you I'm the most important woman on the face of this planet I demand to be acknowledged constantly and complimented just as often," Vriska drawls, nudging Terezi in an affectionate way with her elbow. It's a sudden breach of the awkward acquaintance boundary and she almost immediately regrets it. 

Terezi doesn't seem to notice, however, and somehow manages to hip check her even though she's like what? 110 pounds and _blind_.

Probably the fucking dog's fault. Ugh, stupid dog. Stupid dog who looks like he's a walking fur coat, fuck German Shepherds and their adorable little faces.

"I _said_ , do you get that kind of shit a lot? People being all 'wow you are blind' and just sort of being dicks?"

Terezi smiles. It's pretty and glowing and her face turns, for the shortest of a second, into the face of Athena, majestic and wise and still gloriously beautiful. Or maybe she's just romanticizing her--

"I don't really know. You get used to it after a while. I can't really blame anyone, of course; it's not every day you see a blind 20 year old." She shrugs a little. Her voice is muzzy and her head makes soft little nervous twitches like she's being set upon by an angry poltergeist. "I'm sorry-- I can't really-- I mean-- It's kind of loud--"

Yeah. It's a college dining hall at 9am and everyone who's awake is over caffeinated or hungover. No fucking duh it's loud. 

Then Terezi reaches out and takes her hand. Their fingers curl together like a pair of commas face to face. It's the hand that she can't usually feel much in but she can vividly imagine how perfect her hand must bed, probably soft and her nails perfectly manicured by some piece of magic.

"I'm sorry." She murmurs, absently, shuffling close to Vriska's side. "It's just... I can't really hear you and I don't want to get lost."

Vriska's face is glowing with embarrassment and horribly concealed pleasure. Fuck yeah she's totally going to score with the resident blind chick. Is that a good thing? Or not? She's... she's not entirely sure but whatever, she's hot and it makes her look like a charitable person. "It's fine!"

"Dragon's not so good in the dining hall," She amends, softly. "He gets confused. And I can't find my way around with the echoing--"

She gives Terezi a snort. "Wow, yeah, I can see how a bunch of women drinking coffee can be intimidating. Those super shy German Shepherds, huh? Capable of taking on war in the middle east but sure as fuck wayyy to scared to navigate a cafeteria."

"He just-- the noise of the chairs--" Terezi tries to explain.

"No, no, don't try to explain. It's clear that your dog is actually just as blind as you are." Vriska sighs, dramatically. "Perhaps if you were a little more quiet, he'd stop ignoring all noise made by women."

"Excuse me--"

"Then again, you do want to be a lawyer so I guess he should be used to being surrounded by constant meaningless babble."

Terezi winces and then scowls. It's a surprisingly threatening look on her. Vriska wants her to make that face constantly. "That's sort of rude."

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers!" Vriska quotes, snorting loudly. She's not sure how great of an idea it is to be mocking someone who's got a plausible career plan when she herself is intending on being a professional historian specializing in legends. "Gotta love Henry. Good play."

"My mom's a lawyer." Terezi mutters, glaring a little. It's pretty hard to glare when you're blind, but she manages it. 

Vriska rolls her eyes, dropping her keys and coat down onto a table in the back room. Without thinking, or trying to make it look too forced, helps Terezi out of hers. When her fingers rest against Terezi's collar she twitches, the flesh of her neck crawling. But she relaxes when Vriska snorts at her and soon they're standing there, awkwardly staring at one another. Except not staring, since she doesn't have eyes. Well she has eyes but they're not real eyes. Um, but, they're real, they just don't--

Fuck all this is an awful idea. Why did she ever think she could be friends with a blind girl? _Why_? She's always a total bitch, even to her older sister who has to be the world's nicest librarian. A blind chick with legal aspirations is not going to be getting special treatment from Miss Vriska Cordelia Serket, and then she'll probably just get sued. 

"Vriska?" Terezi says, her voice faux condescending. "Vriska, are you fantasizing about me again? Because while I'm perfectly approving of the free expression of female sexuality, I'm not entirely comfortable with--"

"You _wish_." Vriska growls, violently shoving her chair flush with the tabletop. The resulting _clang_ makes Terezi flinch, bodily. Dragon growls and Vriska growls right back which is _really_ stupid but she still does it. 

"...You're just mad because you know I'm out of your league." Terezi whispers, grinning merrily. Vriska wants to slap her and then kiss her stupid mouth. But, nope, stupid idea. Not gonna do that, Vriska. Nope nope nope.

Vriska glowers at her; normally this would totally make her go pale and walk away quickly and, quite possibly, call public safety about a personal threat. Or whatever. That only happened once and the girl who called them was drunk but _still_ it happened so fuck that, haters to the left. Or whatever. This doesn't work on Terezi. Terezi keeps staring at her, blankly, and she huffs from the bottom of her ribcage. 

She settles for shoving her in the shoulder, hard. Her fingers are still twined around Vriska's so she doesn't go very far, fuck all, but it's still _satisfying_. "Shut up or I'll walk you into the men's room instead of into the cereal." 

"Kinky." She doesn't miss a beat. It's impressive, really. But Vriska hates her for it all the same. This time, she shakes her hand out of Terezi's grasp, a burst of frisson occurring at the feeling of soft fingertips scraping against her palm. _Then_ she shoves her away. This time, Terezi trips over a chair. 

Yeahhhhhhhhh, she is _totally_ going to get sued by the end of this friendship.

* * *

Vriska guides her over to the serving area and she manages to make her own way around, getting her food with the help of the workers who seem a bit less awkward than the ones working outside.

She pours herself a bowl of rice krispies, dry, and then steals a doughnut then two cups of coffee. It's not her healthiest meal but fuckall it's not like her date's going to judge her.

Because this isn't a date. Not at all. Nope. Not a date. Just breakfast with the blind chick from downstairs. Terezi finds her way to their table in the back room eventually, tapping her cane before her like she's some sort of... well... tapping thing. Woodpecker? 

Hahahahahahahaha, penis joke. 

Shit she is way too fucking tired for this to end well. Terezi perches on the edge of the chair with the practiced ease of a hawk landing on a twig to survey a Pomeranian who's wandered off the leash just a little too far. 

"Is it just me or do the cereal pieces in the lucky charms look like penises?" She asks, conversationally, holding up a few of them in her hands. "Because no matter how many times I eat these I just feel like they look like penises."

"...I think they're meant to be anchors." Vriska says, as if this is absolutely normal conversation. "But yeah, they totally look like penises. I mean. I only saw one before I went 'mmm no' and realized that vaginas were hella lot better."

"Mmm well I've found my way around quite a few of them quite intimately--" She spoons a mouthful of cereal into her mouth with a remarkable ease. "And these feel like miniature penises."

"...I don't mean to slut shame, but how can you be promiscuous and blind? Just... how do you... evaluate your partners." Vriska talks with her mouth full of a chocolate glazed cream-filled doughnut. She's genuinely curious as to how that works. 

"Perfume or cologne, voice pitch, word of mouth from other acquaintances and whether or not I feel like they'll be good in bed." She shrugs a little. "Also I talk to Dragon about it. He's good at judging men. Not so good with the ladies, though. Kind of a softie when it comes to blondes."

She says all of this with the stoic face of a well-trained prosecutor maintaining that her white collar client absolutely did not embezzle millions of dollars from his business in order to buy himself a mansion in Brazil. 

"Yeah? So did I just slip past your radar?" Vriska purrs, leaning in towards her, forgetting for a moment that she's not going to sleep with her because she's kind of creepy with the flirting and the staring and the horror. 

Terezi smirks and pulls off her glasses, settling them on the tabletop with their arms outstretched. "No, your voice just sounds like sex."

"Oh." Vriska blushes. Again. What the fuck is wrong with her, she's usually the one doing all the flirting. "Well, uh..."

"Cat got your tongue?" Terezi asks, rolling her eyes. "My my my, Miss Serket, I expected more from you."

Vriska sneers. She throws her hair over her shoulder, crosses her legs and gives her a slow, predatory once over. This does not, of course, have any effect. At all. 

Fuck. She's blind. Urrrggggh this sucks why does she have to be blind that's _so annoying_. You can't be hot when the other person is blind so what's the fucking point. 

Actually.... actually that might be sorta nice. Going on a date would totally be a lot less fuckin' work, then. Just show up to take her out in her PJs and pretend to be at a restaurant or some shit. Didn't they do that on an episode of 30 Rock with Kenneth the Page and that one ginger blind girl? Why are all blind girls ginger?

Ugh whatever. This is stupid. She's stupid. Terezi is stupid. Everyone's stupid. 

"Well, I'm sorry, but I can't really be expected to give it my all when I just don't think you're interested enough." Vriska mutters, huffing a little. "I'm not going out of my way to attract someone who's just not... y'know... my type."

"Oh?" Terezi raises an eyebrow. Gorgeous expression on her, Vriska thinks, absently, forgetting to close her mouth while she chews for a few seconds in order to properly absorb the full drama of the expression. "My, my. I judged you as a woman of good taste. I'm sorry to be disappointed. You seemed so promising."

" _Excuse me_?" Vriska hisses, glaring. She plants her feet on the hardwood beneath her chair and slams her elbows into the tabletop, looming towards her. "Just what are you saying?"

"That I'm eating cereal that looks like penises and flirting with you and you're not doing a damned thing about it. Either you're _super_ turned off by penises or, well, you just don't like breakfast foods." Terezi sips her tea, an earl grey full of cream and sugar. Vriska wonders what it might taste like to kiss it off of her lips and then wonders how she can scour that image from her brain. "Because you sure as _hell_ like me."

"...Fuck you." Vriska growls, narrowing her eyes and huffing. "You don't _know_ that."

She sounds like a petulant little girl even to herself. This sort of thing does not get you laid or get you in charge of a relationship; this kind of thing only gets your doting mother to buy you ice cream and a new pair of shoes and possibly an Xbox depending on what store they're in. 

Terezi grins. "Either way, you're not about to tell a blind girl she's unattractive."

"...You're a demonic looking redhead with dead fish eyes, a terrible fashion sense and the giggle of a hyena." Vriska snaps, rising to the challenge.

"I stand corrected." Terezi says, looking affronted. It's a tragic expression on her, a tension in her facial muscles that echoes throughout her gaze. "Wow. That was. Um. Harsh."

Oh fuck it. She's mean. Really mean. Really horribly disgustingly awfully nastily wickedly mean, you can't _say that_ to a blind woman. That's just horrible. And she's lying, anyways. She might be sort of... inhuman looking, but she's pretty. Nice, symmetrical face. Gorgeous hair. Long, shapely legs--

Vriska huffs, loudly, into her coffee, and slams it onto the tabletop. The clink of glass on Formica makes Terezi jolt.

"...Fine. You're pretty. You're really pretty. And I've never seen hair that color on anyone but a fox. And your eyes aren't dead. They're... well... creepy but sort of nice." She huffs, crossing her arms over her stomach and pouting. "And... that's a kickass coat."

" _That's_ more like it." Terezi says, grinning and slapping the table. "Ahhh I thought so. No one can resist the charms of the sad disabled girl."

"Ugh, fuck you!" Vriska kicks her under the table. She winces but doesn't stop cackling. Eventually, Vriska starts to laugh too until both of them are shaking with it. Her cheeks are aching from how long she's been grinning. 

"You're an asshole, you know." Vriska mutters to her, throwing a piece of cereal at her face. It hits her just beneath the sunglasses and she balks, loudly. "Fuck you, you're not the only disabled one here."

"Oh god, are you disfigured?" Terezi gasps, pulling her glasses off and staring at Vriska like she's never seen her before. She hasn't. And never will. But. Well. Point still stands. "Because I don't sleep with disfigured women. That's just wow, no, not doing that." 

"You're awful." Vriska snorts, rolling her eyes. There's no easy way to tell anyone that she can't feel much in her right arm or right side of her face, nor can she see jack shit out of her right eye if she doesn't have a corrective lens. Those things aren't _noticeable_ unless you get too close or see her with her shirt off which _will never happen at all ever because no one sees her without her shirt on_. Her eye is less obvious, now, with the six thousand surgeries she went through.

But, it's not hard to bring it up to a blind girl. Bad vision? Yeah hers is worse so who the fuck cares. "No. I'm legally blind in one eye without my glasses so don't try to pull the 'disabled' card on me."

"Ew, you wear glasses?" She scrunches up her nose and gags like Vriska's just informed her that she enjoys snacking on human flesh between lectures. But she winks, a little, which is-- well-- _cute_. Cute and unnerving because how the hell does she know--

Vriska doesn't want to think it. Thinking 'I'm a self-conscious, horribly emotionally crippled bitch who can't bring herself to realize that she's insecure' is hard enough, actively acknowledging that she has a problem just _sucks_ so she's not going to do it.

"Yes." She tosses her hair over her shoulder. Ugh she wishes this girl could see because she knows she's looking good right about now. "I do."

"Ugh. Wow, a blonde with glasses? That is _not_ sexy."

"You suck, you know that? I can't see out of my right eye and my right arm is literally half titanium half ceramic."

She slaps her cane into the ground with a loud 'crack', fingers wrapped so tightly around the cane's head that her knuckles are turning teal. Her face is a comedic expression of shock and horror. "Holy shit are you Wolverine. Am I trying to have sex with Wolverine? Let me see your boobs, I need immediate proof that you're a woman and not a burly man with a badass motorcycle."

"...You're blind." Vriska says, slowly, narrowing her eyes. "And you're not seeing my boobs. I'm keeping my shirt on."

"See, the thing is, if you can't see them, what reason do I have for taking my shirt off? For everyone else? That hardly makes them special." This is rapidly deteriorating into absolute nonsense but it is also the most fun she's had in like four months. "I'm keeping them to myself."

Terezi smirks. Yeah that's definitely a face that wants to be kissed. "Are they really that awesome that you don't want to share them with the world? Should I be intimidated by your breasts? Are they famous?"

"Yes. They have their own twitter." Vriska deadpans, downing the dregs of her coffee. "They have close to 1.3 million followers now. Getting a book deal out of it too."

"Well make sure you get an audio version recorded because I'm relatively sure I'm going to have several qualms with the quality of writing your bosom produces."

"Are you trying to tell me that you don't think my boobs are capable of telling a compelling story? Because they totally can." Vriska steals Terezi's coffee because fuckit, she's blind. She switches out the cups.

Terezi reaches out and slaps her fingers, hard. Very hard. Vriska yelps, yanks her hand back, and stares at her. The fuck? The _fuck_? She's blind.

"That's mine." She says, firmly, narrowing her sightless gaze to two slits of sightlessness. "I'm _mostly_ blind, Serket. Not entirely. Blobs and movement, remember?"

"I hate you." Vriska snarls, stealing her cup all the same. Terezi frowns and then kicks her, hard. 

"Get me more coffee." She mutters, crossing her arms over her chest. "Or I'll tell my dog you stole from me."

"The fuck is your dog going to do!?" Vriska snorts, sipping at Terezi's coffee. It's gross because fuck who takes their coffee black anyways?

Terezi grimaces and kicks her, again. "Bite you."

Vriska gets her more coffee.

* * * 

They end up walking to callbacks together as it would appear that they're destined to be together or some shit. Terezi remains close to her side the entire time, this time linking their arms instead of twining their hands. 

She touches her freely, unafraid of what the other passersby are going to say, what people might assume-- it's sort of a nice change. She smells like lemons and fresh grass, a bright, floral perfume that flits through her nose like a butterfly on a patch of tiger lilies or some shit. Vriska wants to drag her back to their dorm and snuggle up beside her and possibly see if blind chicks can play video games.

The sky is a clear blue that's the color of London topaz, so deep and brilliant that it hurts to stare at it. Vriska wants to tell Terezi this, to inform her that it's beautiful and that she's sad she can't see it. But even Vriska knows that this is not acceptable, so she keeps her big mouth shut. The sky is blue, the grass is so rich and green it could be freshly laid carpet and the flowers on the bushes are in the last flourish of their bloom. 

Everything seems a little more beautiful when you know the person next to you can't see anything more than a few blurry smudges. It's a vindictive sort of pleasure but Vriska doesn't let that stop her from enjoying herself. 

"You make a nice crutch when you keep your mouth shut," Terezi says, lightly, shaking her hair behind her as they cross the central green. "Nice change."

Vriska huffs, rolling her eyes. "Wow, yeah, I'm sure you like that, no one telling you how much you _suck_."

"Yes, because everyone always tells me that. It's not like I'm at the top of our class or anything--"

"Hey, hey, Honor Code, no talking grades." Vriska teases, guiding her down the stairs to back campus. Terezi accepts the assistance without a word of thanks.

"You shoved a blind girl into a cafeteria table this morning, I don't think you have the moral high ground Vriska."

"Shut up, blindy." Vriska growls, shoving her through the front door of the dorm callbacks are being held in. Dragon darts inside with a 'woof' and Vriska has to resist the urge to flop over and cuddle him. Ugh why is he cute? He totally wasn't this cute before. But now he's like... fucking superdog or some shit. 

"Wow, _blindy_?" Terezi repeats, incredulous, as they make their way to the elevator. Vriska jabs the button as angrily as she can, trying to convey that she's not exactly happy about being called out on her shitty comebacks.

"Shut up blindy ginger." Vriska elbows her. She elbows her back, in the ribs and it _hurts_. "God. I will kill myself if I'm stuck in a show with you."

"Why? Afraid you can't contain your passion for me while we're backstage, naked in the green room as we apply man makeup and flatten our boobs?"

"Yeah, totally, _totally_." Vriska grumbles, rolling her eyes as dramatically as she can which is _super not useful_ so she huffs just as dramatically.

They bicker their way into the basement lounge where auditions had been held; there's a crowd of hopeful actors already assembled there, some faces new and some faces way too fucking familiar. Rose is there, of course, hair impeccably straightened and tucked back by a violet headband that makes her eyes look even more fucking creepy than usual. Pretty, but creepy.

She gives Vriska a _look_ as they walk in and Vriska makes a face. She and Terezi sink onto a space on the padded benches along one wall. Dragon immediately leaps up into Vriska's lap. She squawks, loudly, and tries to shove him away but he just starts to lick her face passionately which is super awkward.

Eventually she manages to topple him to the floor. He whines and slinks behind Terezi's feet. 

"Fucking dog," Vriska growls, brushing white fur off of her shirt. She scrambles off the bench in order to facilitate the process and a hurt look immediately crosses Terezi's face.

"Wow, really? That attached to me already?" She says, smugly, adjusting the fit of her coat. She knows it's a good color on her, and her hair looks decent and--

Fuck all she's _blind_. 

Terezi's face snaps into a carefully formulated blank stare. "No. No, I'm just surprised you attacked my seeing eye dog."

"Oi, first of all, he assaulted me and second of all, my roommate wants to see me."

"She didn't call you over." Terezi murmurs skeptically, crossing her legs. For the first time Vriska notices just how gorgeous her feet are, dainty and small like they've been carved out of ivory and stuffed into a pair of ballet flats. She settles her cane across her lap and reaches down to rub Dragon's head.

"She's waving!" Vriska lies through her teeth, and Rose snorts. Terezi makes a face, but Vriska scrambles over to her traitorous roommate all the same. Rose doesn't try to make room for her on the armchair so she's forced to flop into her lap.

Rose gives her a judging glare. Vriska gives her a judging glare back until they're both snarling at each other like rabid gargoyles. Vriska's the first one to break, huffing and reaching out to rip the headband off of Rose's head. 

"So, my dear Miss Serket, where were you this morning?" Rose asks, softly, her voice far _far_ to coy not to be implying something. "I see you've found yourself some... company."

Vriska glares. It's weirdly nice to be able to meet someone's eyes-- she never thought she'd miss _that_. But Rose has always been sort of special that way. "You fell asleep talking to my sister last night, you totally don't have the higher ground here." 

Rose blushes. She actually fucking _blushes_ , a spread of rose pink glowing on her cheekbones and between her collarbones--

Vriska starts blushing as well because her brain starts to go to terrible places almost immediately. "Fuck me-- if you tell me that the two of you were having Skype sex while I was sleeping two feet away--"

"Vriska, don't be so... indecent." Rose sniffs, wincing. She crosses her ankles together, distorting the floral pattern of her tights over the whiteness of her skin. "That's disgusting."

She sits up a little and snarls at Rose. "What, are you saying that my sister isn't good enough for you? I'm going to tell her--"

"You're trying to distract me from the fact that you're hooking up with Terezi." Rose says, curtly, wrapping her arms around Vriska's waist and squeezing her tightly. Vriska makes a noise like a furious kitten but Rose keeps hugging her. 

Vriska settles for pretending that this isn't an instance of her roommate purposefully violating her personal space in order to get her to forget that she wants to sleep with Kanaya. "Who? The blind chick? We are _not_ going to have sex."

"Yes, of course." Rose says, her voice positively frozen with sarcasm, like her voice took a bath in sarcasm then moved to Alaska. "Just like I'm not having sex with your sister."

" _Rose_!" Vriska yelps, frantically trying to unimagine that because she did not need to know that. She scrambles out of Rose's lap and all but runs back across the room.

When she collapses onto the bench once more, Terezi looks _frightened_ until she figures out who's just fallen down beside her.

"Wow, graceful, Vriska," Terezi grumbles, pulling off her ruby tinted lenses to roll her eyes melodramatically. "That was just, wow. Fantastic."

"My roommate is in love with my stepsister and my stepsister is in love with my roommate and I think they might be having sex over Skype when I'm asleep." Vriska grumbles, shoving Dragon away with her foot as he runs toward her for a sloppy dog kiss. 

"See, Vriska, this is why I don't have a roommate."

"You don't have a roommate because you're blind as fuck." 

"...You just ruined a perfectly good joke. I'm shunning you now, so that you can learn your lesson." Terezi says with a huff, letting out an angry noise. " _Shunning_."

Before the conversation can devolve into madness, callbacks begin in earnest. They begin, of course, with a series of announcements about their shows, what things they're interested in, how if you don't read for something it doesn't mean you're not being considered blah blah blah blah blah.

The announcements are followed by warm-ups, physical and vocal and all the normal shit. Terezi keeps hold of Vriska's hand the entire time. Vriska can't tell if Terezi is afraid to get lost in general or if she just doesn’t' want to lose Vriska.

Either way, when they finish warming up, they sit down together-- still hand in hand.

* * *

The next half hour is utter insanity; Vriska reads for three different parts, from both Titus Andronicus and Romeo and Juliet-- two female and one male. Terezi, to her surprise, is reading nothing but _Romeo_ parts. 

Vriska sees her perform only one of them, with some obnoxious blonde freshman that Vriska wants to light on fire because wow, she sucks. 

Afterwards, she reads for Tamora a few times but still isn't dismissed by the time they take a fifteen minute break to recoup. Terezi is immediately tapping her way over to her side and, for once, Vriska welcomes it.

"How's it going?" Terezi asks, barely able to conceal her smile. "You sounded good."

"Thanks." Vriska says, softly, reaching down to pet Dragon's soft white head. "I, um, appreciate it. You're pretty good too."

"I think Nepeta wants me as Romeo." Terezi admits, softly, grinning so widely that all her teeth are front and center. "I... I didn't think I was that good."

"No _shit_." Vriska snorts, rolling her eyes. "You'd be kickass as Romeo, don't let anyone tell you different."

Terezi grins and squeezes her hand. Her fingers are shaky and more than a little damp with sweat. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that she's nervous and Vriska feels a flutter of pride glow in her stomach at knowing that for once, she said the right thing. "Thanks."

Before things can devolve into utter ridiculousness, the break ends. There's only about fifteen people left, and Vriska glances around her nervously because _fuck_ why doesn't she seem to have a decent role yet? 

Roles are parsed out in quick succession, all of the Titus ones and then all of the smaller R&J roles that have yet to be filled until, finally, only Terezi and Vriska are left standing side by side.

Nepeta hands them both a sheet of paper, smiling like a woman who's just found out that her OTP was made canon on the series finale.

"Terezi if you'd read for Romeo, please, and Vriska for Juliet?"

Oh fuck all. _Fuck all_. Vriska takes her script, her face going bright red. A single glance at the words tells her that it's the balcony scene. Oh god she cannot be fucking serious. 

She and Terezi walk out of the main room to rehearse in the hallway, both of them utterly silent. 

"Well. Um." Vriska says, softly. "I, um, I don't know how you want to do this--"

"If you want the part, we're going to have to be a little more impressive than whatsherface. You're going to have to _commit_ to this, Vriska."

"I have commitment issues." Vriska says, automatically. Terezi kicks her, hard. "Sorry. So, um, how do we do this? You can't read it--"

"They gave me the scripts in advance and I memorized them, okay? I just. I need you to stay close so that you can cue me up properly."

She sounds more serious than she's ever been and Vriska sort of wants to see if she can provoke her into doing something stupid because that seems super appropriate at the moment. 

They begin rehearsing with an almost painful formality, Vriska reading off the paper slow and emotionless until she gets a feel for the words and Terezi responding with quiet comments and complimentary suggestions. 

It's hard to say what's wrong with their dynamic right now, compared to the day before. Yesterday they just sort of went at it and it was great and Vriska was 110% dying to work with her but now? Now things just sort of suck.

Ugh whatever. She was super excited for this but-- well-- um. Now she's totally ready to call this whole thing off.

"I think we should just go in and do this." Vriska mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose and signing. "I don’t think rehearsal is going to do us any good."

"You want to... improv an audition piece... with a _blind woman_ as your scene partner?"

"Yeah, that's what I just said. We totally kicked ass yesterday when we improved, why not today?"

Terezi glowers at her. Vriska glowers back. Eventually, Terezi gives in and follows Vriska back into the reading room. 

"Are you ready to go?" Equius asks them, in a low, deep voice that sounds like the distant clamoring of cathedral bells. "We're finishing up a Mercutio scene and then you'll be up next."

They nod. 

"I want to sit down." Terezi whispers into her ear, voice awkwardly low and husky like she's saying 'let's go fuck in the bathroom'. "I can't find a chair."

"Oh. Yeah. Right." Vriska helps her over to the nearest chair. Terezi sits down. They watch the scene run its course and then it's the two of them mounting the makeshift stage. 

She helps Terezi to center stage while Dragon makes himself comfy on the floor to watch. 

"Ready when you are!" Nepeta chirps, giving them both a blue ribbon winning smile. "Just pretend we aren't here!"

Vriska nods. Terezi doesn't so Vriska huffs and says, quietly, "I'm going to cross, give it ten before you start."

"Roger that." Terezi mutters back. "Break a leg." 

Vriska takes a deep breath. And then they begin. She crosses to center from stage left, taking steps that are meant to alert Terezi as to where she is. 

Terezi grabs her shoulder as she moves to brush past, her fingers curling into the fabric of her t-shirt like a kitten's claws. 

Vriska turns to stare at her, doing her best to preserve an expression of innocent shock. Terezi's not wearing her glasses and Vriska has to remind herself that she cannot see. With an absent hand she reaches up and trails her fingers across the back of Terezi's hand. 

Terezi seizes upon it immediately, grasping it in her own fingers like it's a piece of hand blown glass. She kneels, slowly, and the look on her face is so utterly devoted that Vriska's heart glitches.

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand-- this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: my lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.

As she speaks she brushes her lips across her hand. It isn't a kiss, just a slow caress across the mottled skin of her bad hand. Her voice is passionate and rumbling and utterly devoted. 

Vriska goes weak at the knees. It's just acting, she reminds herself. It's _acting_ , nothing more. 

"Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, which mannerly devotion shows in this; for saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch," Vriska reaches for Terezi's hand, curling her fingers around her partner's. Terezi rises, slowly, staring at her like Vriska's the first face she's ever seen. 

Her breath hitches as she tries to remember what comes next. "--And, palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."

Terezi squeezes her hand and smirks the smallest bit. She leans in towards her and reaches for her other hand. She glances at the ground and then back up and, with a flirtatious raise of her eyebrows, she leans in, close. "Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?"

"Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer." Vriska slips her hand from Terezi's and presses her fingers against the lips that are inching towards her. Her lips are soft, just as soft as they look and Vriska can feel the slightest residue of chapstick on her fingertips. Her breath is warm against her palm and she shivers a little at the sudden imagining of what it might feel like to have her breath misting against her thighs as she--

Terezi brushes her hand away, staring solemnly into her eyes even as she smirks like a champion poker player. "O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; they pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair."

Vriska snorts and rolls her eyes, forgetting for a moment that she's meant to appear soft, innocent and utterly demure. It works though, because Terezi lets out a soft, rumbling laugh. "Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake."

"Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take." Terezi stage whispers, giving her a look that's all 'come-hither' and not at all 'oh shit your relatives will murder me if they find us making out'. Then, quite suddenly _she's kissing her_. Vriska gasps, loudly, and presses her hands to Terezi's shoulder in an attempt to shove her away. 

But she doesn't have the heart. As Terezi kisses her with a passion that most people reserve for drunk bar nights or maybe their first kiss as a married couple, she can't do anything but kiss her back. Eventually she pulls away and Vriska can't do anything but gape at her. 

"Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged." Terezi says, equally as breathless. She reaches out and runs her hand down Vriska's face and Vriska gasps a little at the feel of her touch _and this is totally just acting_.

"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." She manages to stammer out, keeping a 'bitch what are you doing' tone in her voice as best as she can. Terezi smirks, wickedly and Vriska grins back. 

"Sin from thy lips? O trespass sweetly urged!" She's being so sarcastic it should be illegal. Vriska wants to kick her. Or, you know. Kiss her again. 

Terezi wraps her arms around Vriska's waist and pulls her closer than before. Vriska can smell her perfume stronger than before and as she licks her lips she can taste that she was wearing mango chapstick which is sort of fucking weird but whatever, Burt’s Bees does like everything these days--

"Give me my sin again." She asks, in a voice that's utterly _needy_. She barely finishes the sentence before Vriska's kissing her, arms around her neck. This time there is definitely _tongue_ which is super great. After they've been kissing for far _far_ too long for an audition piece, someone in the audience clears her throat.

Vriska breaks away and Terezi follows her with a soft keen. Their foreheads brush together as they pseudo-stare into each other's eyes.

"You kiss by the book." Is all Vriska can think to say which is good because that's her line. Terezi snorts and then--

"And scene." Rose says, quietly, barely able to contain her laughter. And that’s when Vriska realizes she just made out with the blind girl, in public, and-- well-- she'd like to do that again. 

In private. Probably in bed. Without much clothing. And without the dog. She glances down to where Dragon is panting at Nepeta's feet.

Yeah, sex without the dog is a _must_.

* * *

They walk out of the dorm together, both of them awkwardly silent. Terezi coughs, Vriska coughs, the dog barks--

"So we're going to go back to your room and make out aren't we?" Terezi asks, conversationally. "Because I don't know about you but I'm pretty horny at the moment."

"No." Vriska says, automatically. "No, Rose will come back there."

"...My room then?"

"Yes." Vriska all but carries her up the stairs to main campus. "Yes, there. No dog."


End file.
